Cry of the Hunter - Jack Higgins [64]
He smiled slightly. ‘Everyone’s so anxious to tell me that it wasn’t my fault. It’s beginning to make me feel a bit suspicious.’ He shook his head and said decidedly, ‘The boy’s death has nothing to do with it. Let’s just say I don’t want the responsibility of carting you around with me.’
She reached across and switched off the ignition and the car lost speed and slowed to a halt. Fallon applied the handbrake and she said, ‘There’s only one thing of importance at the moment. The fact that we love each other.’ He didn’t say anything and she said desperately, ‘You do love me, don’t you?’ He sat silently in his seat and made no reply and then she started to cry. He sat there for several minutes, fighting the impulse to take her in his arms and comfort her, and then he started up the car and drove away.
After several minutes she stopped crying and dried her eyes. ‘You do love me,’ she said. ‘But you’re afraid of love. You’ve never learned how to accept.’ He remained silent and she added with a sudden burst of anger, ‘I’m not leaving you and that’s definite.’
At that moment they turned into the main road to Stramore. There was a garage and cafe on one side and he slowed the car down and turned it into the parking space. ‘Would you like anything?’ he said. She shook her head. He climbed out of the car and shut the door. ‘I shan’t be long,’ he said. ‘I’m just going to the men’s room.’
She nodded and tried to smile. ‘All right!’
He looked in through the window and smiled. ‘Cheer up! Things are never as bad as we think.’
He walked rapidly away from the car towards the cafe. He paused for a moment to insert a coin in a cigarette machine and then he went to the rear of the building. He quickly skirted the back of the cafe and moved round until he was standing hidden behind the far corner of the garage. The car was some distance away from him and he could see her head faintly through the window. A few feet away from him there was a large, covered lorry and on the side of it was painted: A. Malone – Market Gardener – Stramore. The driver climbed up into the cab of the vehicle and started the engine. Fallon glanced quickly around and could see no one. He pulled his hat down firmly and running up behind the vehicle, scrambled over the tailboard.
As the lorry paused at the edge of the road he peered over the tailboard and looked at the car for the last time. She was still sitting there, waiting for him to return. The lorry moved into the road and the engine began to roar and then the garage was only a white blob in the distance. He sat down on the floor, his back to the side of the lorry. He took out a cigarette carefully and tried to light it but there was a terrible constriction in his throat. He crushed the cigarette in his fingers and buried his face in his hands.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FALLON sat by the tailboard immersed in his own thoughts. It was with almost a sense of shock that he realized the lorry was passing through the outskirts of Stramore. He stood up and got ready to leave the vehicle at the first opportunity. It came sooner than he had imagined. The lorry slowed as a large removal van backed slowly out of the drive of a house into the road. Fallon vaulted to the ground, crossed the road, and walked briskly along the pavement.
He had no set plan in mind. Only one thing was definite - he had to move south, and the quicker the better. He decided to try the trains. If he was lucky enough to get on board one he could be at the border within a few hours. He walked briskly towards the centre of the town, mingling with the shoppers and keeping constantly on the move.
He crossed the market square and walked up towards the station. It was then that he received his first shock. There were policemen everywhere. Wherever he looked he saw another uniform. He turned away and hurried back towards the square. He turned down a side street and began to walk rapidly.